a story lives forever
Register
Sign in
Form submission failed!

Stay signed in

Recover your password?
Register
Form submission failed!

Web of Stories Ltd would like to keep you informed about our products and services.

Please tick here if you would like us to keep you informed about our products and services.

I have read and accepted the Terms & Conditions.

Please note: Your email and any private information provided at registration will not be passed on to other individuals or organisations without your specific approval.

Video URL

You must be registered to use this feature. Sign in or register.

NEXT STORY

Our favourite books when we were young

RELATED STORIES

Granny used to read aloud to us
Diana Athill Writer
Comments (0) Please sign in or register to add comments

She was a most wonderful reader aloud. When we were in her house, we were always… we and the cousins would always spend our Christmases there and things, and we were often there in the summer. Always, after tea, one went down to the drawing room when we were little, and Granny read to us. And she was a superbly good reader aloud. She read Old Scott to us. And it wasn't until I was grown up that I realised how much she'd been skipping, of long, long, long, descriptive passages. And she could read it, sort of, keeping to the story, without all of the heavy descriptions, without one knowing that she was skipping at all. She was a brilliant reader.

[Q] Did you like that?

Oh, we loved it. I mean, we all absolutely adored being read to by Granny.

[Q] So how should one picture that scene? I mean

You should picture this… this rather attractive white-haired lady in her very beautiful drawing room, sitting on a chintz-covered chair with the children sitting on the floor all around her.

Diana Athill (1917-2019) was a British literary editor whose publishing career began when she helped André Deutsch establish his company. She worked with many notable writers, namely Philip Roth, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Rhys and VS Naipaul. Following the publication of her memoirs, she came to be hailed as an author in her own right.

Listeners: Christopher Sykes

Christopher Sykes is a London-based television producer and director who has made a number of documentary films for BBC TV, Channel 4 and PBS.

Tags: grandmother, reading

Duration: 1 minute, 6 seconds

Date story recorded: January 2008

Date story went live: 23 December 2008